At the end of September, Amsterdam was once again the meeting point of the European photo booth industry: on 27 and 28 September 2026, PBX Europe took place – the Photo Booth Expo where manufacturers, software vendors, suppliers and rental companies from all over Europe come together. For 2026, the show moved to a new venue, and the focus noticeably shifted as well.
Three themes dominated the show: all-in-one solutions, robotics and artificial intelligence. None of them is entirely new. What is new is how much they are now taken for granted – and how clearly they show where the photo booth is heading: away from a device that takes pictures, towards an experience that keeps guests busy all evening.
Trend 1: All-in-one instead of a patchwork
For a long time, many operators' setups looked like this: one piece of software for capturing, a second tool for templates, a service for the online gallery, another one for sharing via QR code – and often nothing at all for payments. Every interface is a potential point of failure, and every extra subscription eats into your margin.
At PBX it was obvious that the industry is moving away from this. What people are looking for are systems that cover the entire workflow from a single source: capture, printing, sharing, gallery, branding, event planning and billing.
For operators, that has tangible benefits:
- Less setup time: An event is planned once, and the booth fetches its configuration on its own.
- Fewer points of failure: When nothing has to be synced between different tools, nothing can drift apart.
- Clearer costs: One licence instead of a bundle of individual subscriptions.
- One point of contact: When something goes wrong, there's no debate about which tool is to blame.
That is exactly the approach we have taken with Boothy from day one. Boothy turns an ordinary Windows PC into a fully-fledged photo booth: photo, video, boomerang and GIF, green screen, instant printing, sharing via QR code, WhatsApp and email, AI filters, a cloud gallery and white-label branding. In the cloud dashboard you plan your events and design templates, Pay2Print turns the booth into a paid kiosk – and because Boothy runs offline, all of this works even in a barn with no reception.
Trend 2: Robotics – from gimmick to premium production
Hardly any topic drew as much attention as robotics. In the photo booth world, it mainly shows up in two forms:
- Camera robots: A robotic arm moves the camera around the guests in fast, precisely repeatable motions. The result is dynamic slow-motion clips that look like they're straight out of a commercial – a format booked mostly for red carpets, galas and large corporate events.
- Drawing robots: Instead of a photo, guests take home a portrait that a robot draws live in front of them. Often an AI first turns the photo into the template the robot then draws.
What's interesting is less the technology itself than the shift behind it: the sheer wow effect of a robotic arm wears off. What matters is the quality of the production – lighting, music, editing, the choreography of the camera move. Robotics is becoming a premium building block for providers who want to position themselves at the top end of the market. For classic wedding and birthday rentals, it will remain a niche for the foreseeable future: purchase price, space requirements, transport and safety distances only pay off from a certain event size upwards.
Trend 3: AI has gone from extra to expectation
The biggest topic was artificial intelligence – no longer as a promise for the future, but as a feature guests simply expect by now. Four developments stood out:
- AI styles right at the booth: With a single tap, guests turn their photo into an oil painting, a comic or a movie scene.
- Custom styles by description: Instead of picking from a fixed catalogue, operators describe in one sentence what the image should look like – matching the wedding's theme or the corporate client's brand.
- Cut-outs without a green screen: AI background removal makes the green fabric unnecessary in many situations.
- AI as a revenue stream: More and more providers sell AI editing as an add-on instead of hiding it in the package price.
With Boothy, this is already everyday reality: after the shot, your guests choose from 13 AI styles – from Van Gogh to Cyberpunk to 90s Cartoon – you create custom filters with a single sentence, and automatic background removal cuts people out. Important in day-to-day event work: your template stays intact. The AI only replaces the photo in the slot; the logos, text and background of your layout remain untouched. With Pay2Print you can also offer AI editing as a paid extra. Good to know: the AI filters need an internet connection, everything else runs offline.
One point that must not be missing, especially in Europe: data protection. AI features process faces, often on external servers. So ask every provider where the images are processed and how long they are stored – your clients and their guests will thank you.
What the three trends have in common
Robotics, AI and all-in-one look like three separate topics at first glance. In fact, they tell the same story: the photo booth is turning from a device into an experience. Guests no longer just want a souvenir photo, but something that surprises them, that they share and talk about. And operators need tools that make exactly that possible without the effort per event exploding.
This matches what we have been seeing at Boothy for a long time – and it's why, alongside AI and the cloud, we also rely on gamification: photo challenges, pose challenges with automatic scoring and a live leaderboard keep guests coming back to the booth all evening. And with Boothy Beam, every guest's phone becomes an additional camera and live gallery via QR code – no app required.
What this means for you as a photo booth operator
- Check your setup for gaps. How many tools do you need today from inquiry to finished gallery? Each of them costs time, money and nerves.
- Turn AI into a product. For many guests, AI styles are the highlight at the booth. Offer them deliberately – ideally as a paid extra.
- Be honest about the numbers on robotics. A camera robot can upgrade your premium offering, but it only pays off if you have the right events for it.
- Think in experiences, not prints. Interaction, games and sharing extend the time guests spend at your booth – and that's the best argument for the next booking.
Conclusion
PBX Europe 2026 showed where things are heading: the photo booth is becoming smarter, more connected and more interactive. AI has gone from extra to expectation, robotics is establishing itself as premium production, and all-in-one solutions are replacing the patchwork of individual tools.
If you want to see what that feels like in practice: download Boothy and try it for free – the code TRIAL unlocks a trial version with ten test shots.
